Govt resumes sending workers to violence-torn Iraq

Govt resumes sending workers to violence-torn Iraq

13 leave today, 1,400 expected by next week

Star Online Report

In this August 4, 2013 photo, 17 Bangladeshi workers arrive at Shahjalal International Airport after languishing in an Egyptian jail for their illegal entry into the country.

After about two and a half months interval, the government today resumed sending Bangladeshi workers to violence-torn Iraq with thirteen job seekers to the country’s Hanwha Engineering and Construction Company.
“More than 1,400 workers are expecting to go to Iraq by next week. The company has assured us of ensuring the protection of the workers at their workplaces,” Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, minister of expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment told reporters in his office in the capital.
He claimed that there is no conflict in those places where Bangladeshis are working. So, the government has decided to send the workers there,
Earlier, the government suspended sending the Bangladeshis on June 13 to the Middle-Eastern country following intensive clashes between the Sunni rebels and the Iraqi government forces.
Since then, over 200 Bangladeshis including 150 from Hanwha, a South Korean company returned home to avoid clashes.
Bangladesh Ambassador in Baghdad Maj Gen Rezanur Rahman Khan said he had clarified the government to send people after observing the stable situation to the North region.
“Hanwha is the largest employer of the Bangladeshis to Iraq. Now, it wants to hire many workers from our country. We have accepted their proposal as our people will be safe under them,” he told The Daily Star.
Some Bangladeshis working for Hanwha, however, informed this correspondent that there is still risk of insecurity in Iraq as well as in their workplace.
“Our company is still not allowing us to go outside of the factory border. So, how are we safe here,” said Sohel Rana, one of the Bangladeshis Monday.
Another Bangladeshi alleged that the Hanwha management is also preventing the return of some workers who want to visit Bangladesh.
Currently, over 20,000 Bangladeshis are working at various sectors in Iraq.